Modularity is widely used in telephone communication systems. In a modular system, a modular plug which terminates an end of a telephone cord is inserted into a cavity of a modular jack which is mounted in a wall outlet or in portions of customer station equipment. Typically, a home is equipped with any of number of wall outlets, each of which includes a modular jack. This allows the customer to move a telephone from room to room and allows the customer to purchase and install new telephones and new cords as desired.
A typical home telephone wiring system includes a network interface device and a plurality of wire junction devices and wall outlets distributed about the rooms of a home. Inside wiring which includes a relatively small number of insulated conductors enclosed in a plastic jacket is run from a wire junction device which is fed from the interface to a plurality of wall outlets. Wiring also may be run from the entry wire junction device to another wire junction device to which additional wall outlets are connected. Typically the plastic jacket must be removed from each end of a length of inside wiring to permit connections of the conductors to the wire junction devices and wall outlets.
There has been a desire to improve the just-described system to simplify the wiring and to provide a modular wiring system. A tricoupler such as that disclosed and claimed in copending application Ser. No. 442,931, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,141, which was filed on even date herewith in the name of E. C. Hardesty, may be used to implement such a modular wiring system. It may be installed within or on the outside of walls in order to provide the customer with the capability of connecting to inside wiring as well as to customer station equipment.
There also has been a long felt need to provide a tool which may be used easily by the customer in order to connect modular plugs to telephone cords or to connect plugs to inside wiring which may be run within the walls or along the baseboard moldings of rooms. Such a tool would improve the versatility of the modular system which includes the above-mentioned tricoupler and provide the customer with the capability for easily making those connections which he chooses.
A modular plug which would facilitate connection in the home has been disclosed and claimed in priorly issued U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,514 which was issued on Dec. 21, 1976 in the name of E. C. Hardesty and which is incorporated by reference hereinto. In that patent, a plastic plug body is provided with a plurality of partially seated terminals which are deployed for engagement with conductors of a cord which is inserted into the plug body. This is expedient inasmuch as it would be most inconvenient for a customer to manipulate relatively small, blade-like terminals into the plug body prior to their engagement with the cord conductors. The terminals are supported within the plug body spaced from conductor-receiving troughs so that the cord conductors may be inserted into the plug body after which the blade-like terminals are seated fully to establish electrical engagement with the cord conductors.
What is needed is a simple, inexpensive tool which may be marketed in a retail store and which will provide a customer, as well as the craftsperson, with the capability of making connections between telephone cordage or inside wiring and modular plugs. Such a tool seemingly is not available in the marketplace at the present time.